Ballina Fair Go competition for 2008 is done once again and with the extensions of the park, the new bowl brought a whole lot more skaters there who wouldn't have been so interested in the old street / small tranny park.

If you were there, then you would have seen and understood what went down, but it was so good that I pretty much lost my voice on the mic, judges were blown away with the level and skill of skaters and decisions were hard pressed for the results, especially in the sponno division.

That said here are the results:


U13

1. Jonny Matthews
2. Dusk Watts
3. Charlie Robertson


U16

1. Jakob Robinson
2. Max Schubert
3. Nathan Hatton


Open Womens

1. Izy Mutu
2. Shari Lawson
3. Victoria Hudson


Open Mens

1. Zac Davis
2. Justin Carriage
3. Damian Brown


Sponno

1. Pat Dandy
2. Jeff Williams
3. Jack Fardell

4. Blake Harris
5. Jesse Schulkins
6. Woody Butwilowski


The judges wanted to make it known that for the sponnos, it was not just about getting a good run, but mainly about getting good tricks, as it is Ballina, anyone could air the bowls, anyone could grind or front lip the old rail, etc. This year with the new park area included (big bowl, bank to tall concrete road barrier block and what turned out to be the biggest rail at a skatepark I have ever seen hit first by a bowl rider (NZ Josh) for boardslide which he had a couple of goes at and almost landed it, before any street skaters even considered it. Then after one try of close to wrecking himself, Jesse Schulkins backside 50-50 clean, Woody ollied over to flat, then tried flip but didn't make it, Skunk fs 180 over to flat after a couple of tries, then of two times Pat Dandy touched it, the first was a clean fs lip slide, the second a near perfect fs nosegrind down it. Add that to all the other tricks he did in the runs, and he came out just on top.

All places of the sponnos were down to half points and it was very little between them, that was how good the skating was.


For the bowl, there will be much more going on there in future years, maybe even a dedicated bowl riders comp, but for this one, it was only an add on to the main comp, so in the jam of which only a few people actually paid for, winners were as follows:

1. Greg Nowik
2. Jakob Robinson

Greg is a euro-backpacker over here with his girl, just touring around and decided to stay in Ballina for the comp after seeing a poster on a wall there. Needless to say anyone who saw him skate would think something like a "Rune Glifberg look alike" and without a doubt was the best skater in it all weekend, going higher and faster than anyone I could see as well as so many more tricks than the other aussie and NZ bowl riders. Others who were ripping but just didn't care about product, prizes or places for a comp were in order of who I thought would have won, as I saw from the tower:

1. Brodie Sellars - killed it once again, most amazing, all round bowl destroyer.
2. Moose - big bowl smooth and fast
3. NZ Josh - raw power, up on it and not looking back

Lots of others there killing it too - Mal, Fred, etc who didn't want to go in the comp but made the day worth watching the bowl alone for a lot of people.


Anyone have comments, feedback, pics or video please post here or contact Paul at Truckstop Skate Shop in Ballina as we would like to know what you thought and I would like to see some vid from a different angle too.

Biggest thanks to Paul at Truckstop for all his efforts in getting this happening and making it work so well.

Thanks to Ben, Trent and Darren for their time and effort.

Thanks to Jai for volunteering time, effort and sorting out things on the day as well as providing a bed for the time I was there.

Thanks to all the others in Ballina who contributed to the planning, working on the day and effort they put into it, as they are the ones who made this happen without much assistance from organised government or community groups as per previous years.

It would be really good to see Ballina Council take on the comp in the future and be able to provide more support to the people who were there for this one.


Thanks to all the sponsors who put up product for the event including Fallen, Folklore, Premium, Krew, Spifire, Independent, Modus, Red Dragon, Volcom, Supra, Protec, Kewday, Afends and many more.



Full list:

Gold Sponsors

Ballina Council, Northern Star, Southern Cross Ten, Krew, Supra, Red Dragon, Crail, Premium, Truck Stop Skate shop, Volcom, Folklore, Modus, 4 Skateboards, Hoon Wheels, Fallen


Silver Sponsors

Ballina Fitness Centre, Narellan Pools, Cherry St Bowling Club, All Music and Vision, SLAM Magazine, Independent, Afends, Kewday, Spitfire Wheels, Protec


Bronze Sponsors

Artillery Tattoo, Oasis Skateparks, BDCSA, Element, Repco Ballina, McDonalds Ballina, Dominos Ballina, Go Skydive, Catapult Surf, Aerial Entertainment, Skull Candy

Sorry Dubs, I didn't get you a sticker...

Any photos???

photos of new bits?

Sorry no pics from me... I know someone out there would have some though.

Thats all i have of the new section!

Thanks Leigh, looks rad. I cant tell from the pics, is that bowl enclosed

yeh it was enclosed on the plans.
how long before the Ganimal turns up and tears it a new one?

oooh pretty new bits

OMFG greg nowik.... he came to the sladey comp in mackay about two weeks ago completely owned the contest...switch tre fakie in tranny, double flip fakie.... he even pulled out down a respectable gap a ollie late shuv...hey mark what board was he riding...cause he brought one of mine off me...

Re: Greg Nowik board, sorry didn't really see - stickered up and scratched a lot though... might have been red and black graphic I think.

Bowl is enclosed, nice round U in the smaller section with straight wall on the three sides, mellow hip to one side (closest to the black railing) then joins the higher part via a tight rounded hip into a tall pocket, then the other side just goes straight on, then round with a nice long facing wall.

The black rail you can see in the pics is the one that they hit, about where the kids are standing in the way of it, then it goes down on the same angle right to the bottom, so twice that again long.

nah must of when through my board by then lol...but yeah he could rip...

that bowl sure did get ripped to the shit house

sponno comp was fukin insane,

probs one of the best comps this year.

pat dandy shreds he deserved 1st

there is a bunch of photos from the comp on the slam site